Education

In 2015, Community Grants in the area of Education will support efforts taking a whole-child approach and poised for meaningful impact in increasing school readiness and/or K-12 student engagement and achievement.

Funding in education is balanced between strategic systems level initiatives and those ‘on the ground’ programs and organizations that most clearly represent and further our Education Objective and Core Values. We encourage any applicant proposing systems level work in particular to contact us for a conversation. We also encourage all applicants to review our full FAQs for important details such as our definition of a whole-child approach and what we look for in terms of a strong connection between out-of-school programs and schools.

Strategies We Fund

Through these guidelines we will fund efforts that advance our goals to ensure that:

Every child enters school ready to learn

Schools and other organizations provide high quality in- and out-of-school opportunities that increase K-12 engagement and achievement through a whole-child approach

High quality opportunities are available using arts education as a means of increasing school readiness, student engagement, and/or academic success

Strong proposals in this area, particular those proposing ‘on the ground’ efforts, will incorporate ALL of the following:

Show a meaningful connection to school engagement and achievement

Address key issues of educational equity

Integrate high quality socio-emotional learning/whole-child approach with best practices in academic instruction (Proposals to do one or the other but not both will not be funded.)

Use appropriate standards and data to design, inform, and adjust efforts for greatest impact

Support child-parent-teacher-community relationships to further success in school

Operate through strong collaboration among parents, students, nonprofit organizations, and school staff

This objective prioritizes programs and schools that work with children in immigrant and refugee families, children living in poverty, and children of color. In the Education area, The Denver Foundation funds organizations that serve school and community populations with a minimum of 50% Free or Reduced Lunch rate, or equivalent. In this area only, we emphasize these particular geographic focus areas: Adams County, near and far Northeast Denver, original Aurora, and the Southwest Metro area corridor along Federal Boulevard.